Basic...Instinct

There is this colleague of mine, Ann who follows the life cycle of Monarch's and works with the 'Monarch watch' program @ The University of Kansas.

more here -> Monarch watch

Ann has larvae / caterpillars / chrysalis at various stages of growth at her cube.
One slow afternoon @ work... i got to watch 'live' a monarch emerge outta its chrysalis. Outta this dark pupa emerged this most amazingly graceful black n orange fella... flapping its wings ever so slowly n gracefully.

While i was wonderin how we gonna let it out the building if he starts flyin about... Ann tells me that his wings were still wet n needed to dry before he could actually take flite.

Ann peals off a tiny round sticker n puts it on its wing and if you strain real hard... you can see the tag in the pic on the left here.
She went on to explain the fascinating journey this little being will take...
and what A journey he will soon go on...

read more here -> A Monarch's wonderful journey

Apparently this lill fella will migrate to Mexico for the winter n make his way back to maybe Texas / Louisiana by early spring next year. It's wings thread bare by this time... with most of the scales havin fallen off from its long arduous cross country flite.
n i thot ALL butterflies lived only 48 hrs!!! how philistine of me :)

And Ann gives me a caterpillar to bring home to my kids to watch grow into a Monarch... and while i'm holding this tall dunkin donuts cup with an inch of water in it n a twig of milk weed with The cat' hi up on one of the leaves... happily chewin away to glory... i am wonderin to myself...
'hmm... this seems way more complicated than i bargained for. what if i kill it or something???' EEE!

I recollect havin a similar thought when I left the hospital some 48 short hrs after Rehwa was born...
'Whhhaaaatt??? My Doc is sending me home already? HOW will i KNOW how to care for a fragile lill baby...?'

and its like Ann can read my thot's or somethin. She hands me a bunch of papers... 3 in ALL!
Instructions...I can deal with that!
I seem to be dysfunctional w/out instructions these days...
can't drive w/out road signs / a GPS anymore...
what can i tell ya... some of the (few) hazards of livin in NA! E!
so anyways... the 'paperwork' ;) that my Cat' came with details everything i need to know ... on how to care for this black n yellow stripey 'worm' :)

I handle the cat' like i'm treadin on egg shells. I even drive slow the 1 hr drive home.. lest he fall off n crawl under my foot!
n bring it home to my kids... who are fascinated to say the least! Rave promptly showz it off to all the kids in the 'hood n then the big ? comes up...
What shall we call it??
which isn't too tuff... as all this lill fella was doin was chewin away....
it gets tag'd 'Chewy' :)

We wake up this am... n run down to make sure Chewy is doin ok... n has not wandered off on to a window sill or doorway!
Hez stayed put n had quite a busy nite... worked his way thru 2.5 large leaves overnite... n pooped all over the table.. oh darn! :)
see the missin top leaves from the prev pic?
n is it my imagination... or did he grow overnite? EEE!
n look...he now has a paper towel under his digs... for easy clean up!
n i just got done with potty trainin Ryan... lol! it never ends hah?!

so it got me thinkin on instinct... how is it that this little being knowz what it needs to do? which path it needs to fly... to escape the cold winters... n come back home? apparently it takes 3 or more generations for a monarch to work its way back to CT.

how did i know... when Rehwa was hungry... when she needed to be held... why was she cryin... what her 'needs' were?

instinct... to be able to feel ... to reach out... to nurture... to do the rite thing... to fly... to live!
isn't that beautiful... that we have it in us?